Saving Spider-Man
by xSeshatx
Summary: {Oneshot} Tony gets a call from an injured Peter. How good exactly is Peter's enhanced healing?


Tony was used to getting phone calls from the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Peter was an excited kid - teenager - and had a deep desire to be welcomed and appreciated. Really, he screamed self-doubt and insecurity and Tony couldn't fully understand why. He was a fifteen year old vigilante with superhuman skills. Need he say more? Nonetheless, Tony got phone calls on the daily from Peter, basically begging for praise as he gave an update of the night's patrol. Happy was tired of it, but Tony somewhat enjoyed it. It was pleasing to see the hero keep something about himself that didn't force him to grow up just yet. Fifteen years old? Yeah, he had to act like a teenager somehow. To say it didn't hurt his heart, though, would be a lie. The kid had nobody there to fully understand everything he was dealing with and he only wanted somebody to praise him. Tony Stark just became that guy for Peter, even if he didn't voice much praise.

Whenever Happy or him got a phone call from Peter, however, they were mostly ignored. Tony wanted the kid to be just that - a kid. He hoped that the more he ignored Peter the more likely Peter would be to calm down his endless amount of Spider-Man action. That being said, when Tony got a phone call from Peter just past midnight - on a school night, no less. What was the kid thinking, destroying any chance of a good sleep schedule? - he simply let a ring. Instead of receiving a voice mail that he would have most definitely listened to immediately, Peter had hung up. Tony was about to shrug it off before the phone started ringing again. Curiosity almost caused Tony to answer the phone, but he let it ring again.

When Tony got a phone call from Spider-Man's suit itself, he gave up the idea of ignoring the kid any longer and answered it. "Hey, Peter, what brings you to-"

"I need help," Peter interrupted, his voice weak. Tony opened up the face cam on both sides and he saw the look of pain covering the kid. He had unshed tears shining in his eyes and there were a few new bruises on his face, not to mention the cuts that were still bleeding.

"What happened? Where are you, kid?" Tony immediately jumped into action, setting down the upgrades he was working on and activating his suit.

A wince from Peter almost caused Tony to wince himself. "I don't know, Mister Stark. I-I tried to find out, b-but I'm not sure," he stuttered and Tony could see the pain radiate off of the kid who had enhanced healing and shouldn't be in any type of severe pain. "I'm not..." He stopped speaking, losing his trail of thought. That couldn't mean anything good.

"I'm tracking you right now. Don't move, you hear me? I'll be-"

"It hurts." And the tears began to fall. "I-I can't move. Please stay on the phone."

"I will, kid," Tony said. A map showed up on his screen with a red dot that he knew was Peter. He was surprisingly close to the new Avengers headquarters. That was a question he'd ask the kid later, when things calmed down a bit. He was flying before he even realized he had left. "Where are you hurt?"

He sniffed and Tony could hear the hyperventilating. The kid was so scared or in so much pain that he was struggling to breathe and that hurt Tony more than he would ever admit. "I don't know," was Peter's weak reply.

"What do you mean you don't-"

Again, Peter cut him off, and Tony wondered if the kid was even comprehending the fact that he was speaking. "Everything hurts. I can't, ah, I can't figure out what started it. It might, uh, my back. Yeah, my back. I think I was, uh, shot. I was shot, and I can't reach it to web it shut." The kid's rambling was slurred and if Tony didn't know better he would have assumed he was drunk. It sounded like he was going into shock. That only made Tony fly faster. "My, uh, ouch. I got beat up a bit. Something happened. Uh, oh, a robbery. I tried to stop a robbery. Or a kidnapping or something. I can't remember." Tony wanted to stop the kid from telling the full story because the full story could wait until later. All he needed was the injury. But he needed Peter to keep talking or else he could pass out and never wake up again. "He had a gun pointed at someone and I uh, what did I do? Oh, yeah, I swung down and we were fighting and, uh, he shot his gun but it - what's the word? - ricocheted and got me. I didn't realize at first but he did and he got the best of me. Ah, Mister Stark? It hurts real bad and I'm cold and I wanna go home."

By this time, Tony was only a few blocks away from where Spider-Man was. "We'll get you home as soon as we can," he said. "I'm gonna have to bring you to HQ, okay? We'll have some doctors take a look at you and-"

"Nobody can know who I am, Mister Stark. Then-then someone might go after Aunt May and I can't stop them right now and-" He cut himself off when he stopped being able to breathe well enough to talk and Tony knew it was panicked breathing this time.

"Hey, don't you worry about Aunt May." Tony saw Spider-Man laying on his back surrounding by blood and immediately dived for him. Stepping out of the suit, he ran to kneel down beside the boy. "Nobody will find out who you are, you hear me? Just trust me and my judgement, kid. Holy- you didn't mention more gunshot wounds." Tony saw a wound on Peter's right shoulder, left arm, and his left hip. Add that to the at least one gunshot wound on his back, and he was lucky to be alive. If he had been in ordinary human, there would be no way. That amount of blood pouring out of him and - He cut his own thoughts off when he noticed another wound in his thigh. "This is too severe. Hold on, Peter. You'll be fine. FRIDAY, I need help."

"I alerted Doctor Banner when you were made aware of Peter being injured. He is already on his way." FRIDAY's voice carried from the Iron Man suit a few feet behind him.

Tony would have showed his praise for his AI if the situation had allowed for it. He didn't have time for unnecessary conversation. Peter was in shock and fading fast. "I need to take your mask off, okay?" Tony asked, taking it off without Peter's consent because he needed to make it easier for the kid to breathe. Mentally, he promised the kid he'd answer every single phone call in the future. Vital minutes to his rescue could have been added and Bruce could have already been working on saving his life. Peter's eyes were unfocused and the light in them seemed dimmed. "Stay with me, okay, Peter? I'm not going anywhere."

"She-she ran away. I webbed the guy up and...she ran. I saved her, she saw I was hurt, and she just...ran. I tried to run, too, but then I started feeling the pain and I kept falling. I was able to web away, but then I, uh, I fell from the sky."

Tony closed his eyes for a brief moment. The kid probably injured himself more trying to run away. He tried to actually run away. He must have been scared if he tried to flee. He didn't even want to flee Germany after being knocked out of the sky and terrified of Tony. When he opened his eyes again, he found the most severe wound - his hip, but he knew the back was worse - and put pressure on it. The wince from Peter made Tony almost feel guilty enough to move his hands, but he knew he needed to stop the bleeding as much as possible. "I'm sorry, Pete, but I have to," he said, hoping the kid understood he wasn't intentionally trying to hurt him.

"I didn't want to call you, Mister Stark. I'm sorry," he whispered. "I wanted to deal with this on my own because you've helped me out too many times, but then I, I don't know, I just didn't wanna be alone if...you know."

"No," Tony said sternly. "That won't happen, you understand me? You are not dying. You did the right thing by calling me, but for the wrong reason. You ever get hurt, you call me. You keep calling like you did tonight until I answer. If you get hurt, you let me know. That way we can prevent you from dying. You understand?"

"I'm not stupid, Mister Stark," Peter said, eyes fluttering shut only for a moment before opening back up. Tony could see how hard Peter was trying. "I know wanting to laugh in a situation like this is never good. I know that when the pain starts to fade it isn't good." Peter was right. If he wanted to laugh and was going numb, he was getting hysterical and either falling further into shock or falling closer to death. Neither were great. "So, just, ah, I don't know. Take care of Aunt May. I'm the only person she has, and after me she'll be alone. Just, uh, go visit her from time to time. Tell her about me being Spider-Man. She deserves to know."

"You're fine," Tony said, emphasizing on the word 'fine.' When he said that, as if it were a miracle, he heard a car pull down the street and screech to a stop. He turned his head only for a moment to confirm that it was Bruce. "Hurry, Bruce."

Bruce knelt down beside Peter with wide eyes and started examining him. He was checking for exit wounds and more damage, but there wasn't time to finish all of that. It looked serious. He tried not to focus on the fact that it was Spider-Man because that would make it more personal. He hadn't exactly known the guy, but he knew he was almost an Avenger, and that was enough to make it personal. "I need to know all injuries. Now."

"Bullet wound in the back as well as other possible back injuries," Tony informed. "The rest are visible. He's going into shock. He's not fully human, Bruce. He has enhanced healing. I don't know how much good that's doing now."

"It's doing enough to keep him alive. We need to get him in the car. I don't have a stretcher or anything. Moving him could be dangerous. He could become paralyzed."

"This isn't where he was hurt," Tony said. "He ran, and then he swung on his webs. He fell from his webs. I don't know how high he was. Kid, can you move your legs?" As if in answer, Peter bent his knee a bit before letting it fall back to it's original place. "If moving him was going to paralyze him, it would have done so already. We need to get him to HQ."

"Help me carry him," Bruce commanded, and that was it really. There wasn't much choice in the matter. If he was going to be paralyzed that was still better than being dead. They carried him into the car and Tony ran around to the other side in order to let Peter's head rest on his lap. Peter was scared and didn't want to be left alone so, by god, he wasn't leaving the kid alone, even if it was only in the backseat. He activated the ability to fly Iron Man without being in it and had it go back to HQ because there wasn't any use for it at the moment. Bruce raced to the drivers seat and then sped off, following after the Iron Man suit on the way back to Avengers headquarters. "Keep him talking," Bruce said, eyeing Tony in the rearview mirror for a long moment before looking back at the street.

For once, Tony blanked on any possible thing to say. What was there to say in this situation? The kid knew he was dying and it was very likely he would actually die by the end of the night. He was already going into shock and saying all kinds of dying words. Tony took a shakey breath - when did he start caring this much about a kid? - before attempting conversation. "How's that friend of yours, the man in the chair or whatever he calls himself?" That was a pathetic attempt, even he had to admit.

"Ned? He's fine," Peter answered, blinking up tiredly at Tony. "He's still grounded from Homecoming, though."

"Why's he grounded?"

"When he was helping me out he, uh, told a teacher he was watching porn," he said, and even though it was weak and quiet, a smirk managed to find a way onto his face. "Teacher called his, uh, mom and she grounded him. He's not loving life right now."

Tony choked out a laugh, too, not being able to deny how funny the situation sounded. "Why'd he say porn? I could think of at least eleven better responses he could have had on the fly."

"He said that was the first thing he could think of," Peter answered. "I'm sure there was some, uh, truth to it to some extent."

Hearing the way Peter was talking brought hope back to Tony about his survival. He was speaking less confused and wasn't slurring his words all that much anymore. It was sounding as if he knew what was going on, even if he was talking about something that happened in the past. It was better than the way he was talking before, at least. Poor kid wasn't making too much sense before. Tony's hand found it's way into Peter's hair without him completely realizing it. "You have high faith in your friend," he said sarcastically.

"I'm just kidding," Peter said with a wince as he shifted positions a bit. "Ned's my best friend. Was before Spider-Man and still is. It's just fun to joke about him. He does the same to me."

The car pulled to a stop and Bruce jumped out of the car. It worried Tony seeing how stressed Bruce was over the situation. If Bruce was willingly stressing himself out then the situation had to be terrible. Maybe worse than Tony was even imagining, and that a terrifying thought. "I'm gonna put the mask on you, buddy," Tony warned Peter. "We don't know if we're gonna run into anybody on the way there."

As it turns out, they didn't run into anybody there, but during the five minute transportation of Peter to one of the many medical rooms in the building he had fallen unconscious. Bruce had to forcefully push Tony into a chair after they laid Peter down on a bed before getting to work on the teen. Bruce had to dig around the entrances of each bullet to find it and pull it out because leaving the bullets inside of him would do so much more harm. Even while unconscious, Peter cried from the pain. Bruce had supplied him with a sedative but it wore off after only half an hour. It ached both Bruce and Tony, but there was nothing either could do at that moment except continue. Giving him more could be dangerous and leaving the bullets in could be fatal.

It took a long time, a really long time, but Bruce had finally finished his makeshift surgery. "He should be dead right now," he informed Tony even though Tony already knew as much. "Tony...you almost let a kid onto the Avengers?"

Tony knew that conversation was coming. There was no avoiding it, but he wished it hadn't been brought up until a later time when said kid wasn't dying in front of him. "Now, Bruce?" he asked and then sighed. "He was already Spider-Man before I knew he was a kid. When I found out who he was, of course I was ready to ignore his existence because bringing a kid into these kinds of things is not something I wanted to be a part of, but then he started fighting more and more people. Not just muggers or anything like that; Spider-Man was fighting villains that we, all of us Avengers, would take care of together. There were only two or three of those, but they were enough to make me consider the fact that maybe this kid could handle it. Then I needed him in Germany. I gave him a new suit that could very well save his life and then I brought him along. He was amazing in battle, Bruce, you should have seen it. He has the fighting style of a kid, sure, but he gets the job done. It's remarkable. I benched him when I thought it was getting too much, and I tried to ignore him for a while in the hopes he'd dial it down a notch. Then he proved himself once again and I offered him a spot on the Avengers. But what else was I supposed to do, Bruce? He wasn't gonna stop being Spider-Man all of a sudden. I still tried to ignore him after he said no, thinking he really wasn't ready for it, and then this happens and he almost dies. Not by a super villain but by a mugger."

After his little rant that both defended himself and ridiculed himself, Bruce let out a sigh of his own and took a seat on the bed Peter was currently laying on. "I understand what you're saying, Tony," he said. "If his mind was already made up on being this superhero, then there's not much you can do besides offer him help. That alone is great of you. Gives him someone he can depend on. None of us had that person, but we were all already adults. He's just, what, sixteen?"

"Fifteen," Tony corrected. "He's only fifteen. Spider-Man since he was fourteen."

"Four- it doesn't matter. He was already fighting crime. You did okay. It's just so...unbelievable."

Tony ran a hand down his face, something he did when he was overly stressed and needed sleep, before looking over at the boy they were talking about. "He's gonna be fine, right, Bruce? I mean, he can't not be fine."

"He's lucky, Tony," Bruce said as his way of answering. "I think he's gonna come out of this. He already looks better. Some healing, huh? We should let him rest. All this talking of ours is bound to wake him. Nothing's keeping him asleep now."

"I'll stay here for a bit. I'll call you if he needs you," Tony said. He wasn't going to leave Peter alone. He ignored the kid for weeks and that got him nowhere. Even that night he ignored two of his phone calls. So many things could have been different. Those five minutes could have been more than enough time to keep him further from death, but he wasted it on ignoring the calls. He wasn't leaving the kid alone again. Bruce, understanding like the man always is, simply nodded and gave Tony's shoulder a pat as he walked past him and out of the room, leaving one superhero unconscious and the other one feeling guilty.

Not even an hour went by before Peter woke up, and when he did Tony was pulled from his thoughts by a hiss of pain. "Hey," he said immediately, keeping his voice quiet and calm in order to keep Peter quiet and calm, "you're fine. We're at Avengers headquarters."

"Ah shi-crap," Peter said, censoring his swearing which made Tony smile. Peter was such a teenager sometimes. They were both heroes and Tony was even a mentor. Peter could swear around him if he wanted. "Ow. Ouch. Okay. I'm fine. Avengers HQ, you said? Wow. Okay." He was breathing fast and way too hard for Tony's liking, but he kept talking before Tony could try to calm him down. "I gotta think, I gotta think. Give me a sec. Gunshots, falling, calling you. That sums it up, I think. I'm alive, that's good. Sorry for the scare, Mister Stark."

"Relax," Tony said, taking a seat beside him on the bed. "You're freaking out a tad bit there, Spider-Boy. Take a deep breath."

"Spider-MAN, Mister Stark. MAN."

"If you have a problem swearing around me, don't correct me when I call you Spider-Boy." Peter laughed even though his laugh sounded a bit forced and very pained. "Seriously though, Pete, calm down a bit. You'll hurt yourself if you get wound up. And we need to have a serious talk on this whole 'I'll call you to report that I helped an old man cross the road but I won't call you when I get shot' complex of yours."

The laughter from Peter ceased and he closed his eyes, shame written across his face. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Be better."

"I want to be able to handle my own problems. I don't want to have to go to you for help on every little thing."

"This wasn't a little thing, Peter. This was life or death," Tony said, unable to hold back his frustration as well as he wanted to. "I listen to all your voicemails, I come when I know you need help, and that's what I want. I want you to bother me. I don't want you to be out there on your own all day long. That's why I have - Karen? - on your suit, and remind me we also need to have a conversation on how you hacked her not to contact me immediately. Point is, I wouldn't have contacted you if I didn't want you around. I'm busy. I have things to do for my company and for the Avengers, even more so now that we have rogue Avengers out there. But I'm never too busy to help you out or listen to your reports on mine or Happy's voicemail. I keep an eye on you when I can. I don't go to bed until I see you're home, I listen to the news just to keep an ear out for you. I'm already doing all that I can to keep an eye on you without you disengaging Karen's duty to call me or refusing to call if you're in danger."

Peter was quiet for a while, long enough to make Tony think he fell asleep at some point during the rant, but as Tony mentally prepared himself to get up he heard, "I'm sorry, Mister Stark. I don't mean to worry you."

Tony calmed down a lot hearing Peter's voice and knowing how much he really meant it. It was not the time, place, or circumstance to have a conversation so serious. "We'll continue this later, okay, kid? When you're feeling better and I'm less on edge," he said, tone returning to the calming one he used earlier. "I wanna know something. Why were you so far up here to begin with? You were too far away from your home."

The teen shifted so he was looking at Tony and laying on his side, and boy did he look miserable. Tony preferred miserable and in pain Peter over 'I gonna die' Peter. "When I realized how hurt I was, I knew I couldn't go home or anything so I was hoping I could make it here. I figured if I could make it here, you wouldn't freak out as bad. I didn't know it was so bad then, but then things got blurry and I got lost a few times. I shot a web and missed a building and just fell, so I called you."

At least the kid was on his way to HQ, Tony had to admit. He had to give him credit for that because even though he had a hero complex and the fear of looking incompetent he knew he had to make it to Tony for help. "Okay, kid. What's your pain level at? You were in pretty bad shape. I gotta admit, this healing factor of yours is incredible. Two hours ago you were almost dead and now you're awake and talking. You hurting much?"

"A bit, yeah," Peter admitted. "It's getting better, though. It's nothing like before. Nothing like I've ever felt before, but it's better. Thank you for saving me. Who was the other guy who showed up? I can't remember much."

"Bruce," he answered. "Hulk."

Honestly, Tony didn't think Peter would ever get past his fanboy stage. He almost completely refused to call Tony anything but 'Mister Stark', he'd stare in awe at Iron Man even in the middle of a fight, and he basically idolized each Avenger. "Bruce Banner?! God, he saw me at my absolute worst, that is not fair. I didn't even know he was anywhere near New York. That is amazing. Will I meet him again? It can't be for another few days, though. I gotta heal up first and get over the embarrassment. He's really here? I haven't met him or Thor yet. I mean I guess I met Bruce but I was delirious and it doesn't count. Oh no, does he know who I am? Does he know I'm fifteen? He's never gonna want to associate with me now. I'm just a kid, and he's the Hulk! He's one of my favorite scientists and I've wanted to meet him before Hulk, and now it's just-"

"Breathe," Tony reminded him, chuckling. Seeing the teenager come out of Peter was something that filled him with pride. Something about the kid seeming so happy and okay made him feel like he wasn't failing as half-mentor half-father figure. "Bruce is still here, yes he knows you're fifteen, but he views you as Spider-Man before he views you as a teenager, so you don't have to worry about that. He's gonna be excited to formally meet you. Not many people appreciate the work he did before Hulk."

"Are you kidding? He's amazing!" Peter was definitely fanboying, and Tony knew he would be okay. With every minute that passed he was able to watch the pain diminish on his face. Each sentence started with more excitement than the last. The scare was over, and while it was horrible and he never wanted to experience anything like that again, he knew that Peter probably learned his lesson on avoiding Tony when he needed help. That's what mattered in the end. Peter was alive and would be able to avoid the near-death experience in the future if it came to that again.

Tony didn't know when he really started to care about Peter, but now that he did he couldn't stop. It wasn't how he expected to live his life. He didn't think he'd ever have kids, let alone want to care for and protect a kid who wasn't his. Or have that kid be a superhero. Things were turning out differently than he expected it to, but he didn't really mind. He had something besides Iron Man and Pepper in his life which is what he needed. It helped advance his responsibility. He had a lot to offer Peter as a superhero, and Peter had a lot to offer Tony as a person.

 **A/N I know Bruce was MIA in Civil War (he's gonna be in Thor: Ragnarok, right?) but it's my story and I needed him there so shhh. And I know the ending just happened, I suck at endings, oops**


End file.
